"Gotham Ink Co,:

Below is the email from Gotham and my reply...I sent several pictures that appear in some of my posts, showing his company....It was fun corresponding with someone whose business operated right next door do us almost 70 years ago.

Hello,

My name is Bill Olson, and I am the General Manager of Gotham Ink Corp.
Gotham Ink & Color was founded in 1937 by a Mr. Samuel Cantor. I don't know the original address, but we were at 5-19 47th Avenue in Long Island City.
In 1992, we sold the property and moved to 19 Kay Fries Drive, Stony Point, NY in Rockland County.

Mr. Cantor died in 1986, but I would love to see any pictures that you might have.

Thank you,
Bill Olson



Thank you for replying, In the letter I said that the owners name was Mr. Kent, but now I realize that my grandmother, who spoke broken English pronounced Cantor as Kenta...and as a small child I heard Kent. I was born in 521 47th Ave and your company was next-door at 519. When I was growing up the street name was changed to 8th St, then W 8th St, then back to 47th Avenue, but I always called it 8th St. I have enclosed several pictures of your building, most over 65 years old and one current one. The older pictures are not as clear as I would like but, you can read your Company name above the door. The newer picture is about 10 years old and is a composite of two pictures...521 was torn down and a one story building now stands in its place. Hope you enjoy the old photos and thank you for asking for them.
Regards,
Don Cianciaruso

"I only have eyes for you"

Had to post this....only a few people will remember this statue. I took this picture in St. Mary's Church. it is St. Lucy...what makes it special is, look on the tray she is holding and you will see a pair of eye balls.....She is the patron saint of eyes. I wonder what the patron saint of pregnancy would be holding ?

"Recent photo of 521 site"

This is a composite of two photos I took about 8 years ago, on my first visit to L.I.City in about 50 years. I took two shots of "Where" 521 use to be. In its place is the lower building you see next to the Gotham Ink Factory that you see in all the Water Park Pics. If you look at the address on our old spot it is now 519 47th Avenue. I assume the Ink factory building bought our house, demolished it and added the lower building. 519 was the address of the Ink factory, so now it is treated all as one building. Also you see that they are using 47th Avenue again and not 8th Street. When I was born it was 47th Avenue but some where along the way it was changed to 8th Street and now it is back to 47th Avenue....I guess eveything old is new again....Compare this pic to the old ones and see that not too much has changed....

"Sink or Swim"

Although this is not too clear..it's fun just looking at it. This was one of my fathers artistic shots, he laid of the ground to take it. That's Hilda on the floor and me running. Even though I enlarged it as much as I could I can figure out who the other kid is. It may have been a neighbor that we invited to our beach for the day. If you look in the background, that man is sitting in front of MBI....it was a machine shop and Uncle Tony worked there for a time and the funniest thing is my future father-in-law, Al Lodato, also worked there and he and my father became friends from meeting on the sidewalk outside the building. I found a recent picture of the ink factory ( in this photo) I will put it up.

"The Day Jay was Drafted"

Left to right..

Marty/Lil Marty, Tony, Nettie, Jay, Hilda

I guess the older folks did not hear my father when he said "Say Cheese"

I think a lot of family at 521 had Smile Bypasses after they moved in...

some of you must have wondered why I called the blog.."Stoopviews"..but as you can see most of the pictures are centered around it.

If you look in the background you will see Isabelle ( or as my father called her "Zapaleen" and her husband Frank ( Frangeesk....these nick names are spelled phonetically)..Look closer and you will see their Christmas tree in the window...they left it up all year long...My father loved telling that story..so happy I found this picture. I think the series "The Adamms Family" was based on them....all kidding aside it's great seeing these long forgotten pictures. It brings our loved ones to mind and we smile as we see them, as they were so many years ago.....and "No" Jay did not get a Tattoo...

"Happy Birday To You"

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving and for my sister and other vegetarians, this site is for you...http://sudzgirl.blogspot.com/2006/10/dolce-vegan-thanksgiving.html

"Italian Idol"

Unfortunately this photo is fading and is almost gone....it is not as clear as we would

like it but I wanted to post it now before it is lost forever.

This picture of grandpa was taken at the first house in Port Washington circa 1940, making grandpa about 46 years old at the time...

As I said in previous stories, I remember him playing a mandolin and singing but in this picture he is playing a guitar.Both my sons Michael and Ron play the guitar and several other musical instruments...I guess they get their talent from their great grandfather...Guess it skips a generation, all I could play was a comb and a piece of toilet paper....I am not kidding, when I was a tot my father taught how to play the comb...I never excelled at it, because I stopped needing one at a very early age...unfortunately, that part I inherited from grandpa....This is one of my favorite pictures of him.....fortunately for us having these pictures to look at, we are able to see the many different sides of the people we only remember as being old....See kids, all of us were young once.....

"The Iceman Cometh"

This truck might look familiar to only a few of us old remnants from 8th St.

I remember that Nick Dora the Iceman ( and in the winter, the Oil man) would drive down the block every 2 or 3 days. My mother would leave a piece of cardboard in the window with various amounts written on them. She had one that read "15 "...another "25" and as he drove by he would look up at the windows and this alerted him that we needed 15 or 25 cents worth of ice. If we were playing outside when he came, we would all stand at the back of his truck, he would climb on and using huge Ice tongs, he would pull a big, big block of ice to the street end of the truck, and using a smaller pick, he would chop off a block. I remember we would wait for the chips of ice to fly into the street and we would run and grab a chunk and suck on it as if it were a piece of candy. Then he would toss a piece of canvas over his shoulder, hoist the block of ice on to it and walk up two flights of stairs,( we lived on the 3rd floor) place it in my mothers "Ice Box" and all this for his 15 or 25 cents. On the way down he would knock on the other doors to see if anyone else needed ice. Only now, as I write this,do I realize what a hard job he had, but he made a living in those hard times.... He was a short guy, maybe 5'2 or so, stocky and bald.

In the winter time he made the same trip, only now he delivered oil actually, I think it was kerosene. It was needed for the stove to heat and cook....Not sure why I thought of this but wanted to share it. Do any of you remember him ?....

I found this picture on line and that is how I remember his truck, only he had a large canvas tarp covering the top and sides.....Oh, by the way, in the winter, we very rarely used ice...we had a small wooden crate on the fire escape outside the kitchen window and that is where the few perishables we had were keep....no one stocked up on food...they would go to the corner grocery store...(John Iapossi's) and buy the few items they could afford, fresh each day...and yes you kids who may be reading this, we did walk 10 miles each way to school in the snow...and that was in the summer time...lol

"The Godfather Part I"

This is the original cast of the Godfather....Angelo, Vinny,Willy and Little Donnie Corleone......We were all cast for the movie, but Coppola thought we looked too mafia like . So Nonna made him an offer he could not refuse...."If my boys don't work, you must give them the costumes.

He agreed and they are wearing them in this photo. It's funny, but Uncle Vinny does look like Robert DeNiro from the Part II and Uncle Angelo looks like Al Pacino from Part I...............Willy and I look like rejects from the movie "Annie".... and we sang the mobs favorite song.."The Gun will come out Tomorrow".....

"I found this floating down the street"

This is the last of the Water Park Pics.....

That's Aunt Rosette, Uncle Tony ( Jimmy's father), my Mom

and me. I am afraid to think what I found floating down the street.....no one claimed it, so it was mine.....

"Pass the Sun Tan Lotion"

That is Jenny standing, not sure if that is me on the floor, Willy behind the hydrant and Hilda on the sidewalk.....just another sunny day on 8th Street.....

"Jimmy at the Water Park"

Here is Aunt Nettie, pregnant with Jimmy, cooling off at our resort.

That's me to her left and I think that's Jenny getting spritzed....not sure who the other kid is....the only thing missing is the life guard....

"The 8th Street Water Park"

In the Good Old Summer Time...

Those were the days before air conditioning, or even electric fans...when the heat was oppressive..we all dressed and went to "The 8th St Water Park".

We were fortunate because it was about 3 feet from the stoop...

Being young we had to go to the children's section. Ah, it was great.

Looking at this picture the Fire Hydrant was to the left of the stoop. My grandfather or one of his sons or son in laws would unscrew the cap on the fire hydrant, and tie the lid of the garbage can over it. Using a special wrench the size of a small shovel, they would turn on the water and in an instant we had our own water park....that's me and the Mitze sisters sitting in the street as the water flowed down the curb to the sewer. That's Grandpa, Nonna and Willy on the stoop and aunt Milly standing next to it. We did that quite often, day or night depending on the heat. We were the Bigga-Shoots due to the fact the hydrant was right in front of our house. None of the other neighbors would dare come over unless they were invited and only the Cianciaruso's had the special wrench to turn it on.... I have several other pictures of this treat and will post them as soon as I scan them.

(remember m click on all pictures to enlarge them)

"Up Up and Away"

Although this photo is not very clear I wanted to post it to show how much fun Grandpa was...he did have a great sense of humor. Unfortunately we tend to remember him in his remaining few years....but by that time his memory was not good and his personality had changed due to his failing health....You also can see that Nonna also had her moments. That is her standing with grandpa's fedora on in a Ma Barker pose. Aunt Rosette is standing on the now famous "Stoop" and my mother standing on the sidewalk. I would say that this photo is circa late 1930's early 40's.....A lot of these pictures were really never that clear to begin with. My father was a amateur photographer and had an old Kodak Box camera and he developed all his own pictures, because paper was expensive, he would print very small photo's, some as small as an inch or so. That is why I am fortunate to have so many of these little glimpses of our family. I have "LOTS" more and if you enjoy seeing these let me know. I have a ton to post yet.

"Can you Dig It ?"

This photo was taken at Nonna's first house in Port Washington circa 1941.

That's Nonna,me and my father. I just finished digging a hole for a new "Out House" and I was testing it out. The only problem was, by the time I was able to climb up to the seat, I wet myself. The Matron and the Warden were summoned and I was placed in solitary for the entire day.

I remember the first house, we were never allowed to go inside. The cooking and eating were always done out doors and it was fun. I don't ever remember staying over night. I think we always went home the same day, but I could be wrong. I do remember grandpa playing the mandolin and singing Italian songs after dinner and the home made wine flowed, and everyone world join in. It seems that everyone was happy in those days...there was always laughing and joking..but maybe I just remember it that way, but at two years old, I guess everything is an adventure.

"Grandpa and his Brother"

This is a picture of Grandpa...(the shorter one) and his brother ( Uncle Mikes father)...I am sure none of us have ever seen Grandpa that young...I guess-ta-mate he is in his late teens at the most. I think it was taken before he was married and I think he and Nonna were wed at age 18 or 19.
I am almost sure that both Nonna and Grandpa were born in 1894 and I think Aunt Millie was born about 1913 making them about 18 when they were wed....If anyone has a better handle on these dates please let me know. I love the straw hats, if he was married at the time of this picture Nonna would have already made a broom out of it.....(Click on picture to enlarge)

"Three Brothers"

These three young men are (left to right) my father, Angelo and Vinny. Do not know what the occasion was, but as I said in the "Three Sisters" posting...It had to be a special occasion. Even their clothing looks new. My father looks about 13, Uncle Angelo about 10 and Uncle Vinny about 5 or 6.....I wish I knew the years they were born...it would help dating a lot of pictures I still have to post. If anyone knows any of the years please let me know. My father was 1915, that is the only one I am sure of. When you look at all the pictures with the kids, they were all very good looking.

Looking at my father he had a smile on his face even then, and he never lost it. He is the only one of the sisters and brothers with a smile, guess he knew something they didn't.....(grin)....

"Submitted by Cuz Georgi for her mom Jay"

( Cut and paste of Georgi's email)

Dear Donnie:

I've been enjoying your blog immensely!! I finally signed up after many attempts at google telling me I pick WEAK passwords! LOLMeantime... here's a pic of my mom and her gorgeous painting of the Athen'sLighthouse. She was actually commissioned to do this painting for the lobbyof a restaurant, Dionysus (where she was the piano lady).This photo is from the grand opening of the Restaurant which I believe was2003...The Athen's Lighthouse is located in the Hudson River in Athens which is asmall town just south of Catskill. And here you were wondering why shenever told you about her jaunts to Athens Greece!! LOLThe second photo is a random lighthouse she painted some time ago.I'd be happy to share some stories for your blog as soon as I dig into thearchives of my brain!!Thanks again for all your efforts into the family blog... It's trulypriceless to have a peek back in time.Hugs, Georgeann

"Three Sisters"

I love this picture. Seeing my aunts so young is wonderful.

For those who do not recognize the faces, they are left to right....

Millie, Rosette and Nettie.

I am not sure of the years they were born, so I will not guess at their ages. I think Aunt Millie was 1913 and Aunt Rosette 1917 and Aunt Nettie 1921...

I will correct this if someone can tell me the actual years.

It must have been a special occasion to have had their picture taken. I can't imagine Nonna spending the money if it were not necessary. I also found a picture of the 3 brothers. I will post it as soon as I scan it in.

If someone has Jean and Dominic's email addresses, I would like to send them the Blog Site, I am sure they would enjoy seeing these too.

In looking at this picture, I see Grandpa in Aunt Millie and Nonna's side of the family in Aunt Rosette and Aunt Nettie, but each person sees different features in the same person. Hope you all enjoy this.

"Ron and Group"

Ron formed a Music Group at work..( Merrill Lynch) playing at an open air Festival on the campus of Merrill Lynch....for a charity drive benefitingThe American Cancer Society and The United Way.Ron is on drums.Enjoy this short clip.

http://www.4019edgelandtrail.com/test.html